Homemade Strawberry Cake is full of fresh strawberry flavor. It’s moist, super easy to make and has a wonderful strawberry cream cheese frosting to finish. It’s one of my family’s most requested cakes.
If you want to add a little kick to your sweet strawberries, try my Spinach Strawberry Salad with Poppyseed Dressing and my recipe for Strawberry Salsa.
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Why this Homemade Strawberry Cake Recipe is a Keeper
This strawberry cake made with fresh strawberries is one of the best. It’s simple, sweet, satisfying and easily customizable.
- Authentic Flavor: Unlike boxed versions, this uses a fresh strawberry reduction (concentrated puree), providing a deep, sophisticated strawberry flavor.
- Natural Beauty: The flecks of real fruit in the crumb and frosting create a stunning, “bakery-style” aesthetic. Display on a cake stand for maximum appeal.
- The Texture: When done right, it’s a perfect hybrid: the lightness of a sponge with the moistness of a butter cake.
Why is my Cake Gray or Brown Instead of Pink?
If your cake isn’t as pink as you like, it’s probably because the strawberries inside the cake cooked in the oven and lost their color. To help preserve the pink color, add a tiny bit of food coloring before baking.
Pro Tip
If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make some! Start with a Tablespoon of lemon juice, and fill the rest of the way with milk so that you have 1 cup. Stir the mixture and let it sit at room temperature for a couple minutes before using.
Ingredient Notes for Fresh Strawberry Cake
This recipe uses only a few simple ingredients you may already have, or can easily find at the store.
Get the full printable recipe with specific measurements and directions in the recipe card below.
- Strawberries: You will need about 1 cup of strawberries. You can use either fresh or frozen. If using frozen, make sure they’re thawed first before adding to the batter or making fresh strawberry puree.
- Strawberry Jello: Strawberry gelatin will help bring some of the strawberry flavor and color, but will also help your batter come together.
- Cream Cheese: Use softened cream cheese to make the strawberry cream cheese frosting. Omit the cream cheese if you’d like a more classic strawberry buttercream.
Variations in Cake Batter and Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
This easy strawberry cake recipe is so simple to change up. I like to experiment with ingredients to make different flavors.
- Berries: This method works perfectly with raspberries or blackberries.
- Dairy-Free: Substitute whole milk with full-fat oat milk and use a high-quality vegan butter stick.
- Cake Flour: Use cake flour for a fine, silky crumb. If you only have all-purpose, remove 2 tablespoons of flour per cup and replace them with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.
- More Strawberry Flavor: If you need more strawberry goodness, add a tiny bit of strawberry extract to the batter or frosting.
- Boxed Cake Mix: If you don’t want to make cake from scratch, you can use a vanilla cake or white cake mix to have a cake made from mix. Be sure to pour into prepared cake pans.
- Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe: Make your cake with more strawberry flavor by using my strawberry buttercream recipe.
Special Equipment Needed to Make Strawberry Cake
This strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream recipe doesn’t require anything fancy, but one thing can make it more appealing.
- Fine Mesh Sieve: Use a fine mesh sieve for your fresh strawberry cake recipe if you prefer a smooth frosting without seeds.
How to Make the Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Frosting
This recipe comes together in 5 quick and easy steps. The cake and frosting is so good, it quickly became one of my favorite recipes to make for birthdays.
Get the full printable recipe with specific measurements and directions in the recipe card below.
- Prep Wet & Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, sugar, vanilla, strawberry jello and eggs. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Strawberry Cake Batter: Remove the stems and chop most of the strawberries, making sure to save some for later. Slowly add in the dry ingredients, buttermilk and chopped strawberries into the wet ingredients.
- Pour Into Prepared Cake Pan and Bake: Pour the batter into a greased 9×13 cake pan and bake in a preheated oven until done. Allow to cool completely.
- Make the Frosting: Remove the stems from the rest of the strawberries and puree in a blender. In a bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter, then add in the vanilla and strawberry puree. Then slowly mix in the powdered sugar.
- Frost and Top: Top the cake with the frosting after it has cooled to room temperature. Feel free to garnish with more chopped strawberries.
Prep Ahead Suggestions for this Easy Strawberry Recipe
To make the baking process a little faster for the best cake ever, there are some ways you can make this cake in advance to love this recipe.
- The Reduction: Make the strawberry reduction up to 3 days in advance and keep it in the fridge.
- Cake is Moist: Bake the cakes a day early, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap once cooled, and store them at room temperature.
Alternate Cooking Methods Strawberry Layer Cake
Alternatively, you can make homemade strawberry cake with strawberry frosting into individual servings.
- Cupcakes: Make strawberry cake recipe into cupcakes. Just reduce the bake time to 18-22 minutes. Feel free to fill the cupcakes with strawberry jam or more homemade strawberry icing if you like.
- Layer Cake: Use 9-inch round cake pans and bake cakes and layer with cream cheese in the frosting.
Store and Use Leftover Homemade Strawberry Cake
- Store the Cake: Store cake in the fridge (due to cream cheese frosting). Keeps 3-4 days. Bring to room temp before serving for best texture.
- Freeze: You can freeze unfrosted cake layers up to 2 months. Make the strawberry icing or cream cheese frosting recipe for strawberry cake fresh.
- Using Leftovers: Turn it into strawberry cake pops. Crumble the cake, mix with a little frosting or cream cheese, roll into balls, and dip in melted chocolate.
- Strawberry Milkshake: Add a slice or a handful of fluffy cake crumbs to a blender with ice cream and milk to get a real strawberry flavor shake.
- True Strawberry Flavor Parfait: Layer leftover cake with Greek yogurt, berries, and a drizzle of honey.
- Base for Strawberry Shortcake: Toast slices lightly and top with macerated berries and whipped cream. Dust the top with a strawberry powder by crushing freeze-dried strawberries into a fine powder.
Questions for the Best Strawberry Cake Recipe with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Sure, but make sure they’re thawed first or else the cake will take much longer to cook and can end up a little watery.
Yes! Bake in round cake pans to make the cake layered. “Glue” together the layers with strawberry frosting in between.
If your cake is dense it may have gotten overmixed. Next time, be sure to mix just until the ingredients have come together. Be careful not to crush the fresh strawberries in the cake batter.
Expert Tips for Making Strawberry Sheet Cake
- Room Temperature Ingredients: Ensure your eggs, milk, and butter are all at room temp to prevent the batter from “breaking” or curdling for the homemade strawberry cake.
- Don’t Overmix: Once the flour goes in, mix until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten, which leads to a tough, bread-like cake.
- Freeze: For easier frosting, pop your cake in the freezer for 30 minutes before assembling. It stops the crumbs from getting into your beautiful pink frosting.
- Serve With: Serve with Valentine Meringue Cookies, Strawberry Blueberry Salad or Red Velvet Chex Muddy Recipe.
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Homemade Strawberry Cake
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Ingredients
- 1 cup Vegetable oil
- 2 cups Granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract, divided
- 2 Tablespoons Strawberry Jello mix
- 2 large Eggs
- 2 ½ cups All purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking soda
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Buttermilk
- 1 cup Fresh strawberries, divided
- ¼ cup Unsalted butter
- 4 ounces Cream cheese
- 3 cups Powdered sugar
Instructions
- Spray a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray and set aside.
- Preheat your oven to 350℉.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together vegetable oil, sugar, vanilla, strawberry jello mix, and eggs. Set aside.
- In another mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Take about ⅔ cup of the fresh strawberries, and remove the stems and chop into small pieces.
- Begin adding the dry ingredients to the wet, alternating between the flour mixture, the buttermilk, and the chopped strawberries. Fold everything together.
- Continue until everything is well combined.
- Pour into the 9×13 and bake for 40-45 minutes.
- Allow the cake to cool, then prepare the frosting.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- Take the remaining ⅔ cup of strawberries. Remove the stems and either add to a food processor to blitz to puree, or use a fork to smash the strawberries.
- In a medium mixing bowl, beat together butter and cream cheese, until smooth.
- Add vanilla and strawberry mixture, and mix.
- Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing well.
- Top the cake with the frosting, and serve.
- For extra fun, top with fresh strawberries, cool whip, etc..
Christina’s Notes
- Reduce the strawberry purée for maximum flavor: Fresh strawberries are mostly water. Simmer the purée until it’s thick, jammy, and deep pink—this concentrates the flavor without watering down the batter.
- Use room‑temperature ingredients: Softened butter, room‑temp eggs, and slightly warm reduced purée blend more smoothly. This prevents curdling and gives you a finer, more tender crumb.
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Cream the butter and sugar long enough: Don’t rush this step.
Creaming incorporates air, which gives the cake lift and keeps it from turning dense—especially important in fruit‑forward cakes. - Measure flour with precision: Too much flour dulls the strawberry flavor and makes the cake heavy. Spoon and level, or use a scale for accuracy.
- Scale the recipe: Simply adjust the serving size in the recipe card and the ingredients will update automatically.
- Make your own All Purpose Seasoning: When a recipe calls for All Purpose Seasoning, you can use my homemade All Purpose Seasoning recipe or substitute salt and pepper to taste.
- Meat doneness: I always use a meat thermometer to test for doneness when cooking meat.
- Use unsalted butter: I use unsalted butter so I can control the salt level in the recipe.
- Preheat the oven: Unless otherwise noted, always preheat your oven before baking.
For more helpful information about this recipe, such as variations, substitutions and other pro-tips, check out the blog post.